The Philadelphia Flyers are a perennial playoff team, missing only once in the past 18 years. The team has a huge budget, a legacy of grit and victory, and the entire eastern portion of Pennsylvania on their side. Great players have tried their damndest, but not a single Stanley Cup has been earned for nearly 30 years. This year, a banged-up and bruised Flyers squad tried to make the best of an injury-riddled season and are on pace to merely miss the cut for 8th place. While young Captain Claude Giroux, veterans like Danny Briere and Kimmo Timonen, and spaceman Ilya Bryzgalov would all love a chance in the tournament, missing the playoffs is actually a great thing.

For the past few years, the Flyers have relied heavily on the aforementioned forwards and some tough defenseman. Those players almost always required some sort of painful surgery to repair injuries after the playoffs. The team has a history of injured players that sit on the Injured Reserve for years, never stepping on the ice and costing the team millions in cap space.